Experience of dogs barking at visitors. Will she settle down?

[kerstina]

Have a six month old miniature schnauzer. We have had a few more friends round this week because its been half term and our puppy is not very friendly to visitors has been barking at them sometimes it seems aggressive. Think she is a highly strung dog, she goes potty in the street on poor unsuspecting people ,she is better with other dogs and owners once she has had a sniff
Am just worried I will have no friends left! Anyone else any advice do you think she will get better as she matures. She loves my mum and when she visits goes potty in a good way like she does us.

No she probably won't calm down. Miniature Schnauzers are known for being a vocal breed and can be very noisy and yappy. Ours is now 18 months old and it's been a huge issue that we are still working on.
Things that definitely don't work are: shaking a bottle filled with stones, squirting water at her or anything else that tries to "shock" them into stopping barking. You may have initial results but they won't work long-term to stop the barking.
Our friends now know to ignore Jess, turn their backs away, no eye contact and not to try to touch her. The quicker they are sitting down calmly, the quicker Jess will settle down.
It's a real pain I know and I am still working on it. At the moment I'm using a "minute minder" that I got on Amazon which dispenses remote control treats. I am also enrolled on a Tellington Touch course as I hope that will help me calm Jess down. She is also very highly strung and reactive.
Good Luck.

Thanks for replying. I bet you had a feeling my post would mention a miniature schnauzer!
Seems some miniature schnauzers can be quieter but as you say it is a characteristic of the breed and we picked a shy puppy so think wariness is part of her personality too. Double the yappiness !
Know you feel my pain so really appreciate your advice. Have you done any puppy training classes? Is that what a tellington touch course is? We found them stressful as you have to concentrate on what the teacher is instructing you to do while trying to stop puppy from barking by getting their attention on treats as he didn't like them barking [sceptical] We attended classes to try and socialise her more.

OP when she barks take her immediately away. If out in walks and she barks turn and walk in the other direction. Consistently. when she is calm- turn round again and go back. If in the house remove her to another room and only when calm can she greet people. If she barks again, back to the other room.

Ok thank you will try that. Do you know if it works with this breed though as the barking is part of the breed characteristics? It definitely needs addressing though as the barking does seem hostile. I would not like it myself if I got barked at like that when I was minding my own business! Love her to bits apart from this!

The only physical experience i have of this method and breed was training class where one owner had mini schnauzer and same issue- constant yapping. In training class it was harder to implement as lots of dogs around and not practical to remain outside until calm as owner would miss most of class but you could see the difference as the weeks progressed that owner had been putting the work in and puppy was far calmer by the end. It usually meant at the start of class owner would remove dog a couple of times and she got the message.
I have seen this also used by the lovely victoria stillwell on her show and it definitely worked for her but she is a pro!

Btw the same pup also peed on its owner aswell during class and trainer said although she had never known a dog to pee on owner she had seen lots of mini schnauzer pee on other people.

Ah our teacher put dogs in a side room if they barked and I thought it was a bit off at the time but your post has just made me click that he was probably trying to teach dogs to stop barking I thought it was because he just wanted a bit of peace
Thank you it is really helpful

This is an interesting thread and to me shows the difference between trainers and behaviourists.

Your dog will not stop barking etc through training but what will help is behaviour modification.

So you can shut your dog away when she barks, you can walk away, turn your back on her but she will continue to react if her emotional state is the same.

I have not seen the situation in rl but it does sound like your dog is showing a fear reaction to new people. So you need to change her emotional state from fear to relaxed and the barking will stop.

I would very very slowly work on counterconditioning her to people

This video may help to explain the principal

Yes absolutely nuttymutty I will look at that. We had here spayed a few weeks ago and the week she was on the pain killers seemed to calm her down a bit unless it was just because she had not got the energy to bark. Need some kind of natural anti anxiety medicine for her!